Munich shooting: Police say attacker was of Iranian descent

July 23, 2016, 1:59 PM IST

Police in Munich, Germany, have said that the lone gunman who killed nine people and wounded 21others at a shopping center before killing himself was an 18-year-old German of Iranian descent. Munich went into lockdown after the teenager gunman opened fire on diners in a McDonald’s restaurant before moving to a nearby shopping mall.

Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae said his motive was “completely unclear” and it was too early to say whether it was a terrorist attack, reports The Guardian.

According to authorities, the attacker had acted alone despite early reports of multiple shooters. There was no immediate evidence of an Islamist motive.

Andrae said that a 15-year-old girl was among the dead, and at least 16 people were in hospital and three were in critical condition.
He added the gunman’s body was found in a side street close to the mall and he was not known to police. The gunman at 6 p.m. local time yesterday opened fire at a McDonald’s restaurant outside the Olympia shopping centre, near the site of the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.

The video apparently shot outside the restaurant showed passersby fleeing in terror as a gunman with a pistol surveyed the street then calmly and indiscriminately opened firing.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, will convene a meeting with chief of staff Peter Altmaier and Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere and a host of intelligence officials today to review the incident. This is the second attack in Bavaria in less than a week.

After a teenage refugee attacked train passengers near the city of Würzburg with an axe and a knife, leaving two people in intensive care, security forces have been on high alert.

Though Islamic State claimed responsibility for the train attack, authorities said the attacker was likely to have acted alone.
Today, flags will fly at half mast on official buildings across Germany. Interior Minister, Thomas de Maizière who is flying back from New York, will head straight to Munich to form his own impression of events.